momagri, movement for a world agricultural organization, is a think tank chaired by Christian Pèes.It brings together, managers from the agricultural world and important people from external perspectives, such as health, development, strategy and defense. Its objective is to promote regulationof agricultural markets by creating new evaluation tools, such as economic models and indicators,and by drawing up proposals for an agricultural and international food policy.

Crisis in agriculture: The think tank momagri is alarmed by the “declinist” rhetoric on French agriculture!

Following the publication of the French Council of Economic Analysis report “French Agriculture Comes to Decision Time”, Christian Pèes, President of the think tank momagri, has recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

Indeed, the overview of French agriculture proposed in this report shows highly unusual defeatism, and its recommendations are fully in line with the policies that are failing today.

It is not a matter of denying that French farmers are confronted to serious difficulties, which concern all types of activities.

Yet, by not placing the crisis we have to deal with in its global context, this report fuels once again declinist opinions that cannot provide political leaders with a good orientation.

In this case, French agriculture is not the only one to suffer from the economic downturn affecting all commodity markets.

All agricultural activities worldwide are concerned and, frankly speaking, first and foremost the countries that do not––or no longer––have the required defenses against the excessive volatility of global agricultural markets.
Even in the more “competitive” nations ranging from Denmark to Australia, farming bankruptcies are not isolated occurrences.

In addition, the report’s term of “lonely virtuous leader”, which is used to qualify Europe to justify a CAP going against the flow of our trade partners’ agricultural policies, is no longer sustainable.

How can one be so conclusive about the counter-cyclical or insurance mechanisms that are nevertheless the cornerstone of the agricultural policy in the world’s largest economy––the United States?

While it is indeed decision time, it is primarily so for our French and European political leaders, who seem to have forgotten that agricultural and food production represents a building block of our national security.